One of the great things about living in South Florida is the weather. It’s generally nice year round, hardly ever too cold and the heat can easily be taken care of with a dip in the pool. The worst part about the weather in South Florida is never getting any snow.
I grew up in Colorado so snow was a regular part of my childhood. I remember waiting for the snow, hoping for a snow day from school. We would put on all our gear and head out, dragging the sleds to the open field behind our neighborhood and spending hours going up and down the tiny (but fast) little hill. Then we’d come home, strip off our warm clothes and snuggle up with a cup of cocoa.
Unfortunately, my girls have never lived in a place that gets snow. Despite the past few years, Dublin does not generally get snow. We did get a good storm our first winter there when Sugarplum was a newborn and we all loved it (except trying to get around without a car in a city that does not have a snow preparedness plan or proper equipment).
Other than that one storm at home in Dublin, we’ve always had to travel to find snow. Honeybun’s first experience was her first Thanksgiving when we went to see my family in Colorado. We didn’t take her out in it as we didn’t have the proper gear and she was only 5 months old, but we did bring some snow inside for her to explore. She cried.
A month later we traveled to Massachusetts to see Hubby’s family for Christmas and Honeybun got to sit in the snow for the first time. She refused to touch it but did make a big smile for us!
It wasn’t until that freak snow storm in Dublin that we got to experience more snow and Honeybun got to really romp around in it. We also took Sugarplum out but she was too little to appreciate the wonders of the snow and didn’t last very long though Honeybun and Daddy were out there for a long time making a snowman, throwing snowballs at me in the window and having a great time.
The last two times we’ve been to Colorado in the winter we’ve been given huge snow storms and the girls have loved it! Sugarplum is finally big enough to run around in it (though the first time the snow was up past her waist so she wasn’t actually running!). We don’t have all the right gear (I did find some snow bibs on clearance but don’t have proper boots or gloves) and so my poor little Florida girls don’t last very long our in the weather. In fact, yesterday we spent more time getting dressed than playing around outside, but these are the kind of experiences and memories they’re going to remember about our visits to Colorado.
The snowfall has stopped and the wind has died down so we’ll venture out again today and see if we can last a bit longer today because these are the memories I’m going to have long into the future of my children experiencing childhood in the way I did.
